WWII Army glider cadets developed specialized lingo

DOUG McDONOUGH | Herald Editor

Published 12:06 pm, Friday, October 19, 2012

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WWII Army glider cadets developed specialized lingo

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U.S. Army Air Corps cadets training in the area to become America’s combat glider pilots during World War II created their own unique vocabulary to describe the various facets of their military endeavors.

Hundreds of these young trainees passed through Plainview during that time, spending up to 10 weeks at the satellite training field at Finney learning the art of dead-stick landing. The local base, which operated for 11 months in 1942-43, occupied Plainview’s pre-war airport which would later become Cloverlake Dairy.

The local operation was associated with the South Plains Army Flying School in Lubbock, which was operated by Clent Breedlove. A large number of America’s glider pilots who later carried Allied troops into combat at Normandy on D-Day and elsewhere received their training at Plainview, Lubbock, Lamesa and other fields across the South Plains.

Among treasured passages gleaned from dusty bound volumes of the Herald is an Associated Press dispatch from Lubbock and dated Oct. 21, 1942, describing the unique lingo used by the South Plains army cadets.

Published that same day in the Plainview Evening Herald, it explains that the school’s commanding officer, Col. Norman B. Olsen of Chicago, coined the term “bird brains” as it applies to unpowered flight. “It means: What it takes to be a good glider pilot — ability to feel air currents and trace blind sky trails by instinct.” Obviously, the meaning of that term has taken a turn for the worse in the past 70 years.

Some of the other combat glider lingo includes:

•Airknocker: Aeronica three-place gliders.

•Sweat out a thermal: Try to find a rising current of warm air so the glider will soar.

•Flying freight car: Big troop-carrying glider.

•Kangaroo landing: Landing in which student bounces glider along runway.

•Thread or joystring: Tow rope used to tow gliders.

•Deadleg: Pilot’s leg when he’s on the right or left side of a three-glider tow and must hold full right or left rudder to prevent collision.

•Threading the needle: Several gliders trying to land at once.

•Gravy slot: Center position in a three-glider tow where pilot can relax and enjoy the scenery.

•Braid the rope: Occurs when gliders swing in toward each other on the tow, causing to rope to bend and stiffen. (Too many braids and you’re washed out.)

•Riding the prop wash: When the glider gets too low and falls into the wash from the tow plane’s propeller, causing glider to bounce roughly.

On Oct. 18, 1942, South Plains residents got a rare chance to visit the highly-secure flying school in Lubbock during a five-hour open house.

During World War II the military took over Lubbock Municipal Airport (now Lubbock International), with Breedlove and the South Plains Army Flying School occupying the east side of the facility.

Olsen told the Herald that normal operations would continue, with visitors permitted to pass the gate and inspect the field from 1-6 p.m. that Sunday.

“Glider flights and other operations will continue as usual, Col. Olsen said, and visitors will be permitted to inspect the gliders and tow planes — both large and small — insofar as military regulations permit,” the Herald reported.

While open to all, Olsen issued a special invitation to young men ages 18 and 19, to “see how the Army lives and works. Officers and enlisted men will be on hand to answer any questions they may have about enlisting or the type of qualifications necessary for enlistment in the air corps.”

The Lubbock Army Flying School band furnished music during the open house.